Monday, 5 March 2018

One rule to change?

Of all the rule proposals that I read while I was a member of the FIDE Rules Commission, there was one potential rule change (to how the game was played) that I did not reflexively dismiss.
It was in fact a very very old rule (rather than a new 'I can make chess better' rule), and it used to be part of the game. I am talking about the 'Bare King' rule, where losing all your pieces (except your king) counted as a loss.
Now, while I said I didn't reflexively dismiss it, I don't actually think it should be reintroduced to the game, with a possible exception. One variation on this rule was that a win by 'Bare King' only earned you half the stake for winning the game (when chess was a betting game). Using that idea, it may be possible to use it as a tie-break, or secondary scoring system. Keep the usual result system, but assign a secondary score based on this feature. The diagrammed position is an example, where under the old rules this is white to play and win, under the current rules this should be a draw (with best play), but incorporating secondary results, this is a draw, but White earns more from the game than Black.
Of course proposals like this tend to fall foul of my "Exactly what problem are we trying to fix here" rule, so apart from its possible use in novelty events, I don't see it catching on.